


Chance

by vials



Category: London Spy
Genre: Alex's POV, M/M, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-10
Updated: 2017-05-10
Packaged: 2018-10-30 04:38:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10869273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vials/pseuds/vials
Summary: Danny will never know it, but a spontaneous decision and some good timing ends up saving Alex's life. Only Alex knows it's simply a case of borrowing more time. He doesn't believe in coincidences.





	Chance

Alex hadn’t believed in coincidences until he had met Danny, though he supposed not all of the man’s sudden appearances could have been chance. This one certainly wasn’t, but it didn’t stop him from thinking about all the other times Danny had managed to find him in the most unexpected areas, because turning the corner and seeing Danny passing time outside his flat surprised Alex and he thought that really, after everything, he should no longer be surprised.

“Who knew you’d be here?” Danny said, grinning as Alex approached.

“Something tells me you had a fairly good idea,” Alex replied, stopping just short of him and watching him for a moment. He knew it was all perfectly innocent, of course; Danny was lovesick, that was all, and had probably been in the area and decided to try his chances. It didn’t do much to shake the feeling of unease Alex suddenly felt, though he tried to push it to the side. The last thing he wanted was to drag Danny into all his increasingly paranoid thoughts. It was like he had said to him – Danny was probably the most innocent person Alex knew. To tarnish that image of him with suspicions that something else might be motivating his meetings, both accidental and otherwise, was grossly unfair.

“I’m not annoying you, am I?” Danny asked, a slight shadow of a frown passing over his face. “I sometimes wonder if I do. I forget that not everybody is alright with me just…” The frown vanished, being replaced by a sheepish smile. “Dropping in unannounced. I forget you’re not like the other people I hang out with. You know they sometimes don’t even lock their flats? You just walk in and wait for someone to get back.”

“I couldn’t imagine it,” Alex said. The feeling still hadn’t vanished, but now it seemed to have widened its scope and he was desperately trying to place what it was. There seemed to be nothing unusual about his surroundings. Danny looked the same as ever, and was certainly acting the same. Alex didn’t think the man could lie to save his life, so that ruled out any of the earlier suspicions. He supposed it was just the leftover worries from the long nights he spent awake, wondering how much time he had left before whatever was coming finally showed itself. To his dismay, Alex was beginning to realise that nothing would shake the thoughts; not his morning runs, not daylight.

“Are you alright?” Danny asked, concerned, though Alex was certain he had shown nothing on his face.

“I’m alright,” he answered, not too quickly, but realising all the same that Danny would want elaboration. “I suppose I’m just still in work mode. I did only just get back.”

Danny smiled, seemingly relieved over something that Alex hadn’t quite been following.

“That’s good. I will go, if you want. I was just in the area, and couldn’t resist.”

“No, you don’t have to,” Alex said, beginning to find his rhythm again. The paranoia still clung to him but he was beginning to remember that this was Danny; he was beginning to remember how to act around him. “I’m sorry. I must have seemed very rude.”

“Not really,” Danny said, and his expression turned fond. “You’re in a world of your own a lot lately. It’s cute.”

“Cute?”

“Yeah. You’re a bit of a dreamer. Sometimes I wonder what you’re thinking about, but then I realise I would probably never understand, not in a million years.”

Alex managed to return the smile, if only briefly, which thankfully wasn’t unusual for him. Not for the first time he had the sudden urge to tell Danny exactly what he was thinking about, but he knew that Danny was right – he would never understand; he could never understand. If Alex were honest with himself he preferred it that way. Danny couldn’t understand because he wasn’t part of Alex’s world and he never had been, and perhaps best of all he never would be. Really, the fact that Danny assumed his lack of understanding would simply be a mathematical thing was testimony to one of the biggest reasons Alex loved him.

“It would probably bore you,” Alex said, instead of saying anything that he had been thinking. 

“I don’t think you could ever bore me.”

Alex had never met anybody so sincere in all his life. Briefly a rush of affection managed to overtake his nerves and he was almost convinced of the fact that he should try and get on as normal; that he should continue to push everything to the side and enjoy the time he had left until whatever happened, happened. He had no idea what it would be but he had his guesses, and Alex’s guesses were usually highly educated ones. He was seconds away from inviting Danny inside when, habitually, he gave a discrete glance up to the windows of his apartment, and saw, ever so quickly, a flash of movement at one of the windows. Carefully, Alex kept the realisation off his face, instead turning back to Danny with another small smile.

“Do you want to get something to eat?” he asked, and Danny looked momentarily surprised – it was rather an impulsive question for Alex.

“What, like, _now_?” he asked. “Don’t you want to drop your things off?”

“I probably should,” Alex said, and even made a brief show of going to reach in his pocket for the key. Struck by a moment of inspiration, he pretended to grab at nothing in his pocket, and then the other, and then again with the first. Setting his briefcase down he continued to look, and then turned to Danny, who was watching, amused.

“I suppose that’s a no on that, then?” he asked.

“I can’t believe this,” Alex said, checking again. “I know for a fact I always put them – oh, Christ. I think I left them in my coat pocket. It was cold this morning but it warmed up, and I couldn’t be bothered carrying it back from work as well as all this.”

It had been a plan Alex had put into action months ago, when things had really started to get worrying. Nobody had to know that the jacket he kept in his office was always there, hidden away in the day and hung out on the peg once he left. Alex was confident that they didn’t have to know about the identical key in the coat’s pocket, either, cut at a locksmith’s on the other side of the country back when he had only been tailed in London and not further afield. If they were being listened to, which Alex was sure they were, the people they would no doubt send to check Alex’s story would find everything in order, just as Alex had told it. 

“I’ll have to go back and get it,” Alex said eventually, letting his shoulders slump slightly. “Though I’ll probably be pulled into doing something for the next two hours. I suppose it serves me right.”

“If the security at your flat is anything to go by, I take it I won’t be allowed to go with you,” Danny said, still amused, but with a touch of disappointment on his face now. Alex looked at him for a moment and then picked up his briefcase, shaking his head.

“It doesn’t matter for now. I did offer to bring you out to dinner.”

“I feel bad, making you carry that around,” Danny said, nodding to the case. “It looks heavy.”

“It’s not, not really. Honestly, I don’t mind. Depending on how late dinner is I might just get a hotel room. I’d rather that than end up walking back and forth from work.”

“You can stay at mine if you want,” Danny said quickly. “I don’t mind.”

“Well, if I’m not going to be in the way,” Alex said, considering while he took another look at the windows, under the guise of checking the darkening weather. “But we should make a decision. It’s going to rain, and if I’m going to be locked out of my flat for the night I would prefer not to get my clothes wet.”

There had been nothing in the window the second time, but Alex hadn’t expected there to be. Really it was a miracle he had spotted them the first time. They wouldn’t have been caught again. A heavy weight settled in the pit of his stomach as he considered what might have happened had he not noticed them. What were they doing in there anyway? He had ideas, of course. Ideas that didn’t leave much room for Danny. It was easy to imagine what would have happened to him.

Not for the first time Alex found himself thinking ahead in leaps, trying to plan his escape, working out where he could go and where he could stay. Really, this opportunity was a prime one. He would be last seen walking back down the street with Danny, his cover story would hold up when they checked his office at work. He knew they had Danny’s flat under surveillance and probably Danny himself, though not all of them time – if they did, they would have known he was heading to Alex’s flat. Danny had obviously arrived only shorty before Alex, else he would have been spotted. There were gaps in the surveillance, and if Alex could only work out where they were…

He shook himself out of it, forcing himself to tune back into the present. There was no use thinking such things. It was too impossible: he had left it too late. The time for slipping through surveillance cracks was long gone for him; they had him surrounded on all sides, tailing him constantly, bugging everything, a tracker on his car. It was a different matter for Danny, though – he still had a chance at slipping away, and Alex knew the right thing to do now would be to make his excuses, to go back to work to back up his story, to get his coat and the spare key and come home and face whatever was waiting for him. That was what he should do. It was correct, it was fair. 

Despite this knowledge he still couldn’t bring himself to do it. Despite everything telling him that he should, Alex deliberately forced the thoughts out of his head, put a small smile on his face, and listened to Danny chatting at his side.


End file.
